John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is just an example. I acknowledge the change in the threshold in the universal social charge from €4,000 to €10,000. During the election last February, people on low wages showed me deductions for the universal social charge on their payslips, and I am glad the Minister for Finance has brought fairness in his provisions in the budget on the universal social charge.

Some other issues have been mentioned, including the reduction in redundancy payments made to companies. I am not here to be patronising and I want to be critical where it is needed. There must be some tweaking of redundancy payments for small businesses to protect existing jobs. Taking all the circumstances into account, the Minister has done a good job in very difficult circumstances. A number of these provisions should be examined again, and I ask the Minister to do so and fine tune the sense of fairness that must exist.

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